


Choices

by Claire



Category: Terminator Genisys (2015)
Genre: F/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 14:45:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5630356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Claire/pseuds/Claire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It feels strange, to think that it's all over. That there's no need to look over your shoulder any more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Choices

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alyse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alyse/gifts).



You're sitting on the dock, and the last time you were on one of these, the last time you were looking out over a lake, you watched your father die. And it feels strange, to think that it's all over. That there's no need to look over your shoulder any more.

You've spent so long running, training, preparing, that it feels wrong just to be sitting here. The water's warm on your toes, where your feet hang over the edge of the dock, and you have to keep telling yourself that the shapes moving in the lake are just fish, flitting in and out of the reeds. There's no need to react to them, no need to plan the next five steps in your head for how you're going to survive. They're not going to come up out of the lake at you, not going to flow from fish into something else, something more, something metal. They're just fish.

"Hey. Mind if I join you?"

"Sure," you reply, watching as Kyle lowers himself to sit next to you.

He crosses his legs, not bothering to remove his boots and dangle his legs over the dock.

You've been here for two days now, and it may be tempting fate to think of the word, but it seems… safe. The house is big enough for all three of you, a little way out of town so that nosy neighbours aren't a problem. You think you could like it here, think you could settle here.

Settle. It seems like such a huge thing, something you weren't sure you'd ever have. You've missed so many years, both in the time since Pops saved you, taught you how to survive, and the years you missed jumping forward with Kyle.

And as weird as it is for you, you think it's must be even worse for Kyle. He came from a world of ash, a world where the sky was grey because of the smoke and fire. You saw him yesterday, just standing outside and staring at the sky, like he couldn't quite believe how blue it was.

And that's another thing that's taking you a while to get used to. You know Kyle Reese, and yet you don't. You've known for years what the future held, that you gave birth to the saviour of the human race. That you and Kyle created John. Pops used to tell you stories, of the way John Connor rallied humanity, of the way he stood above everyone, called them to arms and stood before Skynet to declare that the humans still left would not roll over and die.

It used to feel as though your life was already laid out in front of you. There was no choice for you, no other way you could go. You couldn't choose to just say no, because it would have doomed the future of the human race. You grew up both loving and hating Kyle Reese in equal measures. Because you knew that he was going to love you, knew that he was going to die for you. And you knew that there was never going to be another option for you.

And then you met him, and he was so much more than the faceless name Pops talked about. Because even before he knew, he would have sacrificed everything for you, sacrificed it all for a woman he'd only just met. All because of the way John spoke about you. And you wonder if you taught John that, as well. You taught your as yet unborn son how to survive, how to stand before a terminator and come out the other side. Did you also teach him how to manipulate Kyle so that he'd have no choice either, so that he'd already love you before he ever came back to the past?

Only, now it doesn't have to be that way. You destroyed Genisys, killed Skynet before it was ever even born. The future of humanity isn't resting on your shoulders any more. You don't need to have John just to make sure the human race carries on. You have a choice. For the first time in what seems like forever, you actually have a choice.

There's a bird calling in the sky and you look up to see it soaring above you, flying through the blue and towards the mountains in the distance.

"It's beautiful," you say. And it's going to remain. It's not going to fade to grey in ash and smoke.

"Yes, it is," Kyle replies. But when you look at him, you meet his eyes because he's not looking at the green surrounding you.

You reach out and place your hand on his, feeling his fingers wrap around yours.

You have a choice. He has a choice. And, maybe, it'll be a choice you make together.


End file.
